'Tonight': Box of Lies With Gal Gadot

Jimmy Fallon and Gal Gadot take turns trying to stump each other about what items are hidden inside their mystery boxes. (Published Wednesday, May 24, 2017)

It's a wonder that Gal Gadot was cast as Wonder Woman.

In the Aug. 25 issue of Rolling Stone, the actress reveals why she didn't buy into the hype surrounding a role that took 75 years to bring to the big screen. "When you're a beginner, you get excited about having a job," Gadot, 32, explains. "That's where I was."

"Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" director Zack Snyder had seen Gadot's work in "Fast & Furious and Fast Five," so he asked her to come in for an audition. "Zack called me and was like, 'So do you know what you're testing for?' I said, 'No,'" she recalls. "He said, 'Well, I'm not sure if you have her in Israel, but did you hear about Wonder Woman?'"

After making her debut as Wonder Woman in "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," she got to work on director Patty Jenkins' origin story. Released two month ago, the movie has earned $800 million worldwide, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of 2017. Says Gadot, "It just shows that the world was ready for a female-driven action movie."

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Alex and Maia Shibutani were scanning the crowd before their performance in the ice dance competition at the Olympic Winter Games when they saw a familiar face, "SNL" star Leslie Jones. After that, the "Shib Sibs" took the ice and won a bronze medal.

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From the beginning, though, there was backlash.

One of the complaints was that an Israeli was playing Wonder Woman; the movie was banned in several Arab countries as a result. "Oh, my God, seriously, you guys?" Gadot says. When her body was criticized--the comic book character was notoriously and disproportionally busty--she guffawed. "I told them, 'Listen, if you want to be for real, then the Amazons, they had only one boob. Exactly one boob. So what are you talking about here? Me having small boobs and a small ass? That will make all the difference.'"

Gadot and Jenkins wanted Wonder Woman to be strong, but feminine. "I didn't want to play the cold-hearted warrior," the actress says. "We didn't want to fall into the cliches."

The actress will reprise her role as Wonder Woman in "Justice League," sharing the screen with actors Ben Affleck (Batman), Ezra Miller (The Flash) and Jason Momoa (Aquaman), among others. And Gadot filmed the superhero movie while pregnant with her second child. "We cut open the costume and had this green screen on my stomach," Gadot says of concealing her growing curves. "It was funny as hell--Wonder Woman with a bump."